World Tree MUSH

The bar Ash waited at could have been anywhere and had a mix of personsfrom Everywhere. Ash watched the patrons, nodding to this person or that as he headed towardsthe stairway leading upstairs to a room h e had rented the use of for a meeting he had scheduled. 

Said room wasn't really fancy, a few chairs, a large table, a variety of drinks Ash had bought ahead of time andfairly explicit assurances that the meeting would be private. 

This is where Ash would be waiting, drinking from a small handle-less porciline cup while holding a manilla envelope close. Granted Wolf would have gotten a transmission from Ordis containing relevant sensor data on the target station as well as offending craft aswell as intellagence on relevant known and likely units deployed, but havinghardcopies for the discussion felt useful.

     He's late. 

     It takes a while before Wolf O'Donnell makes an appearance in that room. One of the reliable things about Wolf, at least, is that his appearance generally stays the same...even when his outfits change. Today, the middle-aged merc wears a leather jacket and some custom-tailored cotton denim-weave jeans along with some boots. Not his curb-stomping boots, but still boots. His undershirt is still black and he still wears that same pendant around his neck. He also still wears the same gun knife on his hip. 

     The swagger Wolf has shows that he's already had a few drinks and it might explain his being slightly tardy. "All right, kiddo," he says shutting the door and making sure it's secured. "I'm here. So you get to be my client today? Heh. I was expecting that sooner or later." Just like he expects Ash to eventually act against him if there's ever that 'one' contract that ever so greatly offends. That tends to happen to the independent contractors. It's the very reason they don't commit and simply join. 

     Footsteps lead the furry guy over to a chair and he has a seat in it. Backwards. "What have you got and what's the plan?"

Ash expected one day he and Wolf would part ways. However until that day he was quite happy with how things currently worked, at least for the most part. His headtilted at Wolf's drunken stagger but said nothing as he undid the manilla envelope and spread its contents out on the table. Pictures of an almost organically grown space station flanked by a pair of ships of differing make and build philosophy along with other images of single fighter craft, a list of the station's hold manifests, and images of the last three systems it had drifted through.

Ordis was quite thorough in gathering intelligance.

"As of right now there isn't a 'plan' per se. that is part of why I am hiring you as my own knowledge tends to stay around squad level." A dismissive handwave before his finger tapped the space station.

"That is the primary goal here. I want everyone evicted from that station, preferrably peacefully, but. Well. Things Happen." He then shuffled through photoes to a more technical display of the station pointing out several unused secondary airlocks both for ships to dock from and others seemingly for single-man craft, or possibly space-suited mantinance or inspection. "Near as Ordis can figure both crews are salvage rather than frontline ships since Tenno dojos tend to stay in the nice out of the way corners of the system well away from shipping lanes and patrol routes."

THis was due mainly to the lack of external weaponry and the fact in any fight the station's defenders would be outnumbered several million to one in a prlonged engadgement, but that was besides the point wasn't it?

"I've put a call out for a boarding team since Ordis and I be busy trying to get the station to hand control over without the usual fuss and delay.. I gain station control I can bring internal defenses up, or at the very least use the station's mantinance routines to assist friendlies if need be."

Awesome, now where's the hitch? Isn't the whole 'invading a hostile ship or station and make all the hostile parties stop existing somewhat hisspecialty?

He took a sip from the teacup and frowned. "Hitch is i have to go in without my frame. Either side sees anything Tenno or Tenno related andthe nice easy friendly options are permenetly shelved and it turns into a meatgrinder." A pause as he tapped first the hard angular ship's picture then the large bulbous ship. "I have no idea if either are at full crew compliment, but even at quarter strength a meatgrinder scenerio would be long, tedious, and frankly I'd rather not bust the nice valuable rebuildable station."

     "Right, right," says O'Donnell as he follows along in the additional briefing while looking over the information available. He may have had enough to drink to smell it on him, but if asked Wolf would explain it's just 'to take the edge off'. Good luck finding out 'off of what'. The leather of his jacket squeaks as he reaches over to pick up a document to skim over. 

     "So, these ships described. They sound like people you've mentioned before. Aren't they supposed to be enemies?" Frowning in thought, the space pirate rests his free arm on the seatback of the chair before him and leans in against it casually. Maybe even lazily. "Though I suppose, if that's the case, they're pretty far from home either way. No fallback. No reinforcements. Could make for a clean op." 

     The document is tossed down onto the table leaving O'Donnell to peer over at his associate; his pending client. That eyepatch-halved stare settles upon Ash and that purple eye focuses. "I...do have one question, though." Wolf spreads his arms in a light shrug. 

     "What the heck's a Tenno Dojo?"

"Supposed to be," Ash nodded in agreement. "However they would have to be well otuside of where last known intellegance put any ongoign Grineer salvage efforts." Granted Ash has been away from 'home' for close to a year now, and a lot can happen in that time. "Grineer don't do anything this drasticly outside of normal without orders, or unless they're deemed defective and are trying to avoid kill teams."

Then he clarified on the other meaning of 'Enemies.' "Both factiosn are in opposition, meaning even if they hadn't already been taking shots at eachother there is a long istory of bad blood. However as you say they're far from home with no reenforcements. The grineer will hopefully be pragmatic enough to see value in conserving what they can until they get home to provide intel. The corpus will see no profit in dying if a way out can be avoided. The Corpus I'd put as easier to negoicate with because to them everything's business, and for them a contract is to be twisted and stretched as far as possible if it'l lget them an advantage, but they'll honor agreements."

Ash's green eyes looked into Wolf's one good eye. Nevermind he assumed the eyepatch was a cybernetic augment rather than a mere covering for an injury. "Dojos are where tenno tend to congregate. Safe places to horde materials, plan, train, and in our own limited ways do what reverse engineering we can on gathered documents about enemy gear." A hand moved to shuffle through the papers before comming up with a photo diffrent from the rest. this had an image of an observitory deck that had terminals dotted along a central table. "Whoever owned this has been gone at least for a couple years. Long enough for the internal systems to declare itself derelict and to have partially enter long term standby mode. I don't plan on taking posession, but leaving a place like that, able to crew thousands especially when it looks like Vines seem to intentionally open up to take it from 'verse to 'verse on what looks like a seven standard cycle between jumps seems too good a commerse opprotunity to pass up."

     "Huh. And here I was beginning to think you were jealous that I had my own space station and you didn't." Wolf is joking, clearly, because he chuckles very briefly before moving on. "Okay, my initial thoughts are to figure out where it might wind up next and plan an ambush with a token force for their arrival since it's the only way to get in that close without them knowing. Give them the whole 'you've entered our space, this is our territory, you need to let us come aboard to discuss the terms of your presence' spiel. Doesn't matter if it's not our space, because they sure as heck won't know that. Have a standby team ready to move in if they don't comply." 

     Fingers pressing against the surface of the table, O'Donnell gestures as he explains. "You set up your breach teams in two craft, each of those has two escorts. The rest of the force that comes in is a distraction, play it mostly evasively since you don't want stray fire hitting this station, and once the breach teams are inserted through the station's airlocks they'll pull out." 

     "This would place a very heavy burden on those inside. What's to keep these people already aboard from forcing this into an immediate gunfight against our intruders? What's your plan once inside?"

"Alright that sounds good." Ash chuckled softly as he sifted through photoes. "Ordis had already checked the next vine and it's another world with nothing i nspace beyond stationary orbit." SO while there would be no actual aid if thigns went sideways there also would be noone going 'waitaminute you are all invading OUR space.' 

He looked from Wolf to the Dojo pictures. "Plan right now is for the breech teams to provide cover while we progress to the station's central spawn room." Another image made its way to the top of the pile showing what looked like a bare bones box of a room with no obvious terminal or other sign of being anything of importance. In fact it was more a wide hallway than anything. "Doens't look like much does it? Every Tenno Dojo starts at that room and is effectivly grown out from there. Ordis is building a control key to interface with the local systems and assume ownership however I have to insert it there. All paths lead to this room and the systems won't allow any construction to not have a clear path here."

this also meant it would make a great and obvious place for boobytraps if either hostile party knew about that little quirk of Tenno construction.

"Going from what plans ORdis could convince the station to cough up it's split into five levels. Goign from top down: Ops and communications, a garden level housing backup power generation at the outermost points, Central docking. ring with access to the clan's primary storage." He tapped a segment of the station and traced an imaginary line bisecting the structure, "This is where i suspect the greatst concentration of resistance would be by the way since it is where both ships are docked."

His finger traced downward, deck names listed as he does so, "Research and testing. Barricks, off duty lounge, and recreation as well as a secondary docking ring." His finger then paused. "Then there is a level below this for primary power generation. Seems the clanthat owned this place didn't think of that as a level proper. It is also where the spawn room is located. SO with any luck we dock at the secondaryring and head down, cut primary power to turn the station lifts off, and get the station to recognize my authority before explaining the reality of things with our uninvited guests."

He thought it was a good plan, but the whole point in talking to Wolf was to get a bead on what he might miss."

     "Ah ha. So you expect a gunfight and to have to deal with those aboard until you can secure the station, then just hope they magically surrender long enough to explain things to them? I mean. It could work. At the very least, you'd be able to secure the station." O'Donnell leans forward to regard the schematics shown with a scratch of his chin. The tone of his voice gives way to some doubt, though. It's almost like he's going to say- "But..." 

     There's always a 'but' and sometimes it's a big one. 

     "But, I mean, if I were these guys on a station that suddenly turned potentially hostile with absolutely no way to get back to the main ships to leave, I think my defensiveness might win over my diplomacy. You're banking on a lot of What Ifs for knowing so little about their current situation." 

     Wolf wrinkles his muzzle as he sits up, looks over, and then reaches over to grab at some the drinks available for a look-see at what might be palatable. "These people are all alone and they probably know it. From what you've said, these people have only ever known war. They may not know you're a Tenno without your suit, but I'm willing to bet that xenophobia is going to be very very strong with them. To top it off, you're using information to infiltrate and override the station that only a Tenno would really know. You're going to be showing your hand too soon despite it simply being the most efficient way to take over this Dojo thing." 

     The cork is removed from one bottle and the lupine fellow takes a sniff, grimaces heavily, then pours himself some anyway. Whatever it is is yellow-green. "So, unless you plan on removing every single one of these people from every hole they decide to crawl into if they decide to double-down and dig in...you're going to have to surprise them with something different and far more obvious." The glass gets a swirl while the cork is put back into the bottle with a firm tap of the palm. His grin is not a poker face; he's clearly got something in mind, but he waits for feedback.

Ash nodded slow, "I'd had hopes showing them a clear path to the door would get the hint across, but you're talking a lot of sense." Ash conceeded after a few moments of mentally shuddering at the idea of having to dig out literally everything to make sure some bright bulb with literally nothing to lose decides to take a demolition charge to the secondary reactors." This was in fact as much of why he was willing to pay Wolf's rates as much as any on site support. You don't get old in this businessby being stupid. "I'm listening, lay it out for me."

     "Well, you said it yourself already, but allow me to explain. First of all, if we lie in wait for their next jump, pending the location and time actually remain fairly calculable, we can claim to be the strangers owning that space. They won't know us and, to them, we won't know them. We shouldn't know their ships or the station or their motives." Wolf reaches up to tap a fingertip to the side of his head at this. 

     "So, yeah, we try to get them to let us dock peacefully. Probably not going to happen, but you don't know unless you ask, and most military forces would ask before trying to forcefully board. An invasion group trying to force their leaders to meet with them wouldn't go to the secondary docks; they'd use the main docks exactly where the highest concentration of them will be." 

     The aging merc tries a sip of what he assumes is some type of liquor and doesn't immediately gag. It doesn't taste like liquid charcoal, so that's a huge plus. He still half-lids his right eye and tips his nose upward with a grunt, holds the pose a moment as the general burn warms his esophagus, before sighing and putting the glass down. 

     "So, I propose you split those infiltration teams. Have the more stealth oriented folks dock on the Secondary Ring and quietly make it to this room you need without raising any alarms. Have the more sturdy folks hit the Primary Docking to board preparing for a fight, if need be, thus drawing their attention to the most obvious. We'll bring along a, I dunno, a viewscreen remote controller or something, claim it's supertech able to override the various technologies from other Worlds. Have their attention, use their attention, and when they laugh...you hit the button, coordinate it with your override in this control room you need to get to, and suddenly-" 

     Wolf O'Donnell leans in over the chair back and table and at the word 'suddenly' just as quickly and unexpectedly snaps his fingers. "Suddenly they aren't laughing anymore AND you have their attention AND they're interested." He reaches for the glass again. "Of course, somebody raises an alarm elsewhere, the coordination is botched, or the following negotiations fall apart...then you're just going to need to a mop and a really big bucket."

Ash nodded slowly as he listened. WOlf's idea was sound, exploit the fact neither faction knows what's going on to maybe force a ceasefire. "I can already ell you shock and awe isn't going to work with Grineer." Well, there were a few rather violently enthusiastic about violent Grineer but that wasn't the react ion wanted. "Trying to figure if this 'millitary inspection' should lump the two parties together or when one starts violently asserting they're nothing like the other if that should be when negociations should be proposed since they are very... VERY far from home."

     "Fair enough. You probably know these people best, so if you don't think that'll work, don't use it. Still..." Wolf tips the glass up to drain the contents with a follow-up shudder from the sensation of warmth and the ethanol fumes working up through his nasal cavity. "You have to admit, it would make for a very funny situation. Definitely something worth telling at bars and nobody would believe you." 

     The glass touches down once more. "Okay, so we can suspend the theatrics, be more serious, but that doesn't change the fact making a beeline to the one spot that allows you to gain control will immediately out you as having Tenno influence and information. How do you want to get around that? Or should this be a non-issue?"

Ash nodded again, "There is also a non-zero chance introducing unknowns at the front door would get the two sides to actually sit down. admittedly it's a LOW chance," Ash admitted while pouring something into his overly small cup and took a sip, "Ah..." His smileturned into a grimace and he tossed his head, "Augh... right. Anyway yea non-zero chance theatrics will get them to actually sit down shut up and listen. Plus ifthey're busy paying attention to you, they won't be payingattention to me then when you hit the button and everything turns off." A shrug. "I like your idea. I'm just hoping since these two groups are salvage they'll be more cooperative."

Then he refilled his glass. "The biggest unknown I have no idea how to account for is the exact station layout and conditions. They might be at full strength and reletively fresh. They might be on their lst legs from dealing with eachother and defenses and are all but begging for an excuse to pull back without losing face."

     "I can't help you, there. You'll have to confer with your other associates that will be joining you on such matters. Some of them might have pretty crazy abilities..." Wolf slowly shakes his head. "But I can get you and them aboard, wherever you need them to be, and maintain a perimeter outside the range of their immediate defenses with exfiltration on standby if the mission is aborted. Which, as I think of it, brings to mind another question: what are you going to do if they flee? If one or both of those ships disengages and attempts to leave, do you let them leave or do you eliminate them?" He folds his arms one over the other atop the backing of the chair and rests his chin upon them to stare over at Ash with a raised brow.

"As much as i would prefer to blockade both and settle it all in one confrontation." Ash started to put the pictures back in the envelope they came from, "The goal here is station security. If they decide to leg it best to not persue since neither will be capible of getting backup barring some way back home i don't know about. Pretty sure you'dh ave the muscle to scrap both ships, but that'd require what I feel to be too great a comittment of what you have." Not to mention the price would go up pretty heavily, but he was pretty sure Wolf knew that component of his reasoning without having to state. "Worst case set warnings out to worlds on any vines this thing's been through in the past few cycles and I'll field as nessicary since by then 'playing nice' has gone out the window and i can do harassment." 

Point of Fact was if Ash wanted to bemethodical he could slowly whittle both sets of forces down himself. He just wanted to hold out a chance at something more productive than a corpse pile.

     "Okay, so to finalize what you want here, do we send both teams to dock with the sole purpose of blitzing to your Growth Room thing, or do we split forces to create a distraction and allow the other team a chance to work silently and quicker? We can toss the theatrics aside if your main priority is simply securing the station. Station authorization swaps to you, you can lock the place down or we can try to chase them out if they don't want to listen to reason. I imagine the people you get to help you with your mission is going to be what affects the outcome the most." 

     Wolf pours himself another drink, because...reasons. That stuff isn't going to drink itself. "And, yeah, with information you provide on general defenses and armoring of those types of ships, we -could- scrap them. I'm not saying we should. But, well, this is one of those moments where I'm supposed to say 'the moral choice is yours so do what you think is best, kiddo' or something." 

     O'Donnell stares down into the glass for a moment as he breathes the next two words more than he says them. "So. Yeah. Not going to lie and say I didn't have a mess to clean up after my raid and takeover of Sargasso Station, but I also won't say I executed everyone there. Many joined me once I was able to prove my strength and tact over theirs." 

     Wolf lifts his drink glass in gesture. "Then again, I knew about as much about what I was working with then as you do working with what you do now. Only difference is...I'd been on Sargasso before. Back when Andross... Yeah, anyway. Lay it out for me in bold type what you want to do along with any fallback plans, then I can tell you what it's going to cost, then you can haggle, I'll demand a percentage in deposit upfront, then we drink. ...or do you still need time to figure it out, 'boss'?"

"We go with your plan. Send one team to make with a nice big show while a smaller force goes in through the lower docks." Ash looked about the room. "Feels like i'm forgetting something," Which was never a good sign. 

So insteadh e looked over to Wolf, his eyes meeting his. "I would like to give these people the option to stand down. Grineer acting as a security force, even if temporary, would be a fairly sizeable asset, and Corpus are pretty good with the tech from my world, which will make mantinance a damend sight easier." He then flipped through a few options and shook his head. "If that looks unlikely Plan B is to drop the theatrics and secure the station. Let the ships flee to be delt with at a more convenient time. After that threat is handled I'll wnat one or two observation ships to hang around if that happens in case they want to swing by later." 

Something felt off to him. This was wolf's plan wasn't it? What he jsut said. It was a solid plan. "Just as a reminder, at least on the corpus side there will be a lot of robotics used. Scrap without question. Their operators will be human, or possibly debt slaves. If they surrender fine, if not I'll hate the mess but I'm not going to scream at you over keeping an eye on the objective. If Grineer surrender. LET THEM," His voice was hard on that point. "THey won't back down unless there's no option. THe few I've seen that have surrendered turned out to not have the enforced obediance genetics. If they want to fight? Same deal the Corpus get. Giving them a chance isn't the same as I'm going to try playing a pacifist run."

     Wolf continues to hold his glass up, although he may just drink it anyway and pour another glass for an 'official' gesture. "Well, it's all well and good that you're telling me this, but I'm not going to be in charge of your Squad A. You better make sure to explain this all -clearly- to the people you want on the job. I also suggest having your heavies in Squad A include people with social manipulation skills, especially those with experience in trade and negotiations. I might be there with them, but I'm going to have my hands full -- well, ear full, rather -- working with my boys to coordinate my own forces. Consider me extra security if things go to hell." 

     Additionally, Wolf fully recaps to make sure he's following along perfectly. "Ambush, request boarding and peaceful talks, failing that we call in the distraction, breach the docking points and unload, Squad A causes a stir, Squad B sneakily infiltrates the objective point, coordinate the biggest bluff of the mission to try to wow them into compliance if you want, take over the station, then a) manage peaceful negotiations, b) chases them off the station and let them leave, or c) mow them down with the risk of personal loss on our side. Worse comes to worse, exfiltration support will be available. I've no illusion that these guys are dangerous. A, B, or C depends on your other help. I hope the powers that be send you some good ones. Station acquisition is top priority." Wolf always prioritizes heavily accordingly. "Although, your desire for non-lethality is admirable. Better tell that to your other help, too." 

     "Well, for the amount of people we're going to need for this, covering the cost of potential ship repair, risk fee for loss of life that goes to the families of those lost, flat fee for this level of heist, and a non-lethal priority in combat if applicable, skipping the costs for an extended sortie against their ships, I'd say that rounds up to about..." 

     Don't try to drink as he lists off the price. It's not cheap. In fact, it's damnably steep when compared through standard world conversions. It's also probably a sobering reminder of just what kind of mission of Star Wolf is being asked.

Ash nodded thoughtfully at Wolf's advice. There were a couple from the folk he knew that might pull off social manipulation if not outright psychic mind abuse. however most... didn't. the disadvantage of running with people as young as your apparent age.

Then Wolf's cost calculations. So much for saving up for Miwa's home rennovations. In fact this would effectivly Zero out Ash's finances. "Sure I can go ahead and forward you the up front portion now if you like." He was well aware of just how expensive Wolf's aid would be. This was part of why he didn't throw money around like party favors. "Please keep in mind what i"m suggesting is not 'in placeof your costs.' This is a seperate arragement assuming a middle of the road outcome leaves us with the station and a decent amount in the hold. You get first crack at salvage, mostly because you already have a network to filter interesting things out a piece at timeto buyers. Then after reconfiguration and occupancy is filled I will impress on whatever governing body takes posession to take a securities contract with your group, at least for an initial period to establish stability. After that they would be free to renew or not as they wish. Your fee would be... " He rubbed his chin as he considered, "Twenty percent of all income before any expenses sound fair for a peacekeeping force?"

     "I'm flattered, kiddo, but you're assuming my guys would want to take up a semi-permanently stationary job. I can't speak for them. I can offer the idea, though, and see if it takes. But I'm not going to bother until the assets are secured. Part of our presence there will be to allow for a marginal period wherein you can sort out those details. Normally weeks go into planning for these kinds of things, buuuut-" 

     Wolf slowly rises from his seat and still maintains a lifted glass. He does this on purpose, of course, to present a tangible measure of the importance of contract detail compared to time spent. He also lifts a leg to rest a boot on the chair upon which he was just seated. "I recognize the importance of taking advantage of opportunities when they come along, while you can, which is why I realize this must be pretty important to you. You secure a deposit with me of equal worth to that percentage and we'll maintain the contract for payment until you can pay it off. No interest added or any of that crap so long as you continue to work with me; you can even work it off with a percentage of your future earnings."

Ash gave Wolf a thin smile at his playing coy on the idea of his people maybe yes maybe no. If even half of what he had in mind twenty percent before anything else would rake in all sorts of money. "Let's be honest with eachother Wolf. What i'm offering you is a continual presence on a station that is drifting from universe to unierse with all manner of opprotunity that providesfor both legal and illegal income, contacts, as well as putting you in prime position to soak in new intel. I've seen you work and it's enough to make even Darvo green with envy on maximizing your opprotunities."

Helps that Wolf has few if any real morals.

Ash does raise his glass as answer to Wolf's toast. "I personally would liket give you those extra weeks, since going in with slipshod to no intel is the best way possible to end up having your expenses outweigh any potential profit." Can't spend money if you're dead, and all the money i nthe worlds won't replace a crew you've spent years fine tuning to knowexactly what they need to do and when. "You'll have your money. Because if you don't, it's my head." There was no malice to the words, just a statement of fact.

"He knew if it came down to it, to Wolf he was far more expendable than his people were.

     "Maybe, but again, that's business to discuss on another day. For now, Tenno Dojo. Before we agree, do I have leniency to act on my own to make sure that the station is secured if the situation demands something not outlined here? Otherwise, I'd call an abort if things go to awry." 

     It's a very important question to ask, but it does leave some matters open-ended. That can be a good thing. Then again, that's giving Wolf O'Donnell a certain amount of situational advantage to go carte blanche. 

     Yes or no, Tenno?

Ash nodded once. "If the situation shifts and you need to act to secure the station or secure a route of escape you have free reign to act." Ash's eyesnever left Wolf's as he gave consent for the greying merc do essentially do as he needed. This could go very badly. However this is something Wolf has done before. He might be afrade giving the Old Wolf reign to do as he wishes would leave far fewer potential support personnel than he would otherwise like. It also means the guy that knows what he's doing can put that knowledge to use. "Anyone has problems with how you behave, they can take it up with me after the job's done. I won't hire you in only to hobble you and then complain at your performance at the end of it."

     "All right, 'boss'. I agree to these terms." Wolf's words are stern, hard, as if etching things in some unseen stone. He immediately tips his glass back to shotgun the contents, which disappear quickly down his throat, before banging the glass down and reaching out that hand to offer an incredibly firm handshake. It's not a painful squeeze to be encountered, if accepted, but it is a rather symbolic expression. Ash may not have yet encountered this end of the table dealing with Wolf. It's a very different thing than discussing work to be done with/for him. Some might even feel it being akin to shaking hand the hand of the devil. 

     Trite stereotype, but Wolf will embrace the image anyway. 

     "Do you?"

Ash squeezed Wolf's hand firmly, still not willing to break eye contact. "These terms are acceptable. Coordinates should already be forwarded to your craft. Payment will be handed over before we leave this world." Ash's voice was calm. If he had jsut shaken hands with the devil what of it? He was a Demon tothe people he had been savior to after all. Wolf was a man of his word and he will fulfil his end of the deail even if that means going a few kilometers further than expected.